Legal notice and terms of use - Intellectual Property and Copyrights

Introduction

Within this document we explain our policies towards unauthorised and/or unlicensed use of all our copyrighted material (including images, texts, logos, trademarks, photographs, artworks and so on).

Note:

• ManorHouse Miniatures reserves the right to change this policy without notice;
• The contents of the policy are in no way meant or intended to be a license of any nature between ManorHouse Miniatures and his/her customers/visitors.

Intellectual Property (henceforth, "IP")

The IP deals with the concepts and creations of the mind, that you cannot actually get hold of. It is property, because it can be bought and sold, transferred from one person to another - just like any other property. Any writer, graphic designer, photographer, sculpter, game designer and so on produces material that has an intrinsic IP copyright on it, transferred to Manorhouse Miniatures that has paid to acquire not only the work itself but also the IP and the copyright of the work.
The IP copyright covers all the material produced in-house or commissioned as work for hire (images, texts, logos, trademarks, photographs, artwork and so on).

WARNING: "Downloadable for free" doesn't mean that the material is Copyright/IP free!

ManorHouse Miniatures gives all this material regarding Mindstalkers game available for free on its official websites, but only for personal use (we mean for playing Mindstalkers). The fact that this material is downloadable for free doesn't exclude nor transfer the copyright of this material. Anyone can download and print this material for free, but cannot either use it for commercial purposes, or reproduce it without the written permission of ManorHouse Miniatures, excepting the cases explained below.

Copyrights infringements / proper use of the material

ManorHouse Miniatures spent and continue spending a lot of time (and money, of course) to produce Mindstalkers, and gives to his/her players all, but the miniatures for free. Obviously ManorHouse Miniatures work is to sell miniatures, so there are some activities that can be explicitly or implicitly acceptable by ManorHouse Miniatures, and some others that can cause, directly or indirectly, economic damage to ManorHouse Miniatures.

Manorhouse Miniatures supports and enjoys users' works, websites, fanzines and so on, but also asks for respect due to what is stated within this document. Not be damaged and so to be able to make even better products in the following years.

Therefore:

1. You can download and print from the official websites all the printed matter within the "Download Area" section: the Core Rulebook, Game Tables, Templates & Counters, Special Cards, Background stories, Expansion Rulebooks, Missions, Fonts, Wallpapers, Logos, Banners, Screensavers, etc.
   All the material within the "Download Area" can be downloaded, printed and reproduced but only for personal, reasonable use. If you need 100 copies of the Counters sheet, feel free to print or copy them. But, if someone asks you to give him a copy of the Core Rulebook, ManorHouse Miniatures kindly ask you to give him the address of our official website to download it directly... but it's even not a problem also if you give him a photocopy or an electronic copy.
   It's forbidden to copy any other content outside of the Download Area.

2. You can not sell photocopies, electronic copies or any other type of reproduction of ManorHouse Miniatures' material. Doing this will be a heavy copyright and IP infringement, and you will be prosecuted.

3. You can not produce and/or sell anything based upon our IP, including merchandising like t-shirts, mugs, hats, books and so on.

4. Do not cast any copy or materials that are based upon our Mindstalkers material. ManorHouse Miniatures has to maintain a strict policy on this in order that we do not fall foul of counterfeiters. We would also remind you that reproduction for personal use is NOT an automatic exclusion in respect of copyright protection in many territories worldwide. The miniatures are the only thing we sell... so you can easily understand that casting copies of our miniatures is a direct damage of our work, and will be strongly prosecuted.

5. Do not cast and/or sell conversion kits - We do not allow unlicensed third parties to manufacture or produce conversion kits for our models. If you are interested in this business, please contact us.

6. Miniature conversions are a major aspect of the hobby, although in IP terms they also constitute a major infringement. However, we enjoy the cool conversions that players make using our miniatures... although, keep in mind that:
   • please do not combine our IP with IP owned by any third parties.
   • you cannot cast copies, neither for personal use nor for selling them, of your conversions.

7. If you want to create your website/fanzine/mailing list/forum/etc. (now and afterwards referred to as "Personal Media") please first note that we encourage and enjoy any users effort to expand Mindstalkers acknowledgement and players activities around the world, and our official websites are the best place to publish your own home-made material!
   Articles, conversions, artwork, background stories, conversions, battle reports and so on, if sent to us, will be quickly evaluated and could be published within the official website along with a "created by" message. This will allow you to see your work officially published without any copyright/IP problem!
   Please note that all the material sent to ManorHouse Miniatures will become IP and copyright of ManorHouse Miniatures... but please note that in anyway, any work you create using our IP is not "owned" by you: it is called a "derivative work" and those parts based upon our IP do not give rise to their own copyright. Please bear this in mind when using our IP. For example, if you write a story based on Mindstalkers' background or if you do a painting of a Mindstalkers' characters, you have no IP or copyrights on it, because you're using our IP without permission, and you can be prosecuted. So, sending us your work maybe the best way to publish it safely... and could also be a great way for you to have a chance to be called upon to join our official team!
   Anyway, if you don't want to send us our work and want to make and publish you own Personal Media, please:
   1. If you have commercial purposes or monetary gains (eg. sponsorships) from your Personal Media, directly or not, PLEASE DO NOT DO IT. No way. This is copyright/IP infringment and will be strongly prosecuted.

   2. Clearly specify that "This website (or fanzine, forum, mailing list, etc.) is unofficial and is not linked, commissioned or endorsed in any way by ManorHouse Miniatures", possibly including a link to the official website. People must have no doubts that yours is an unofficial and unlicensed home-made production.

   3. Do not include the ManorHouse Miniatures Logo, excepting within a "credits" section with an appropriate link/explanation.

   4. You must specify also the following disclaimer: "All logos, miniatures, names and trademarks regarding Mindstalkers are copyright by ManorHouse Miniatures and are used without permission: their use is not intended as a challenge to their status".

   5. If you want to use the Mindstalkers logo, characters names, and any other ManorHouse Miniatures' IP please use them "as is" without changing it. We have also put a lot of Mindstalkers banners and logos in the Download Area just for this purpose: choose the one you prefer and use it without stretching, deforming or changing colour.

   6. Do not create, distribute or use any material that is not consistent with the functionality, atmosphere and parameters of the Mindstalkers background and rules as created and owned by ManorHouse Miniatures.

   7. Do not create, distribute or use any material that is derogatory, obscene, offensive or against the law, or that devalues any ManorHouse Miniatures product in any way.

   8. Do not use ManorHouse Miniatures IP in relation to any third party products or third party IP.

   9. Do not choose a domain, fanzine, forum, mailing list or players club name including the trademark "Mindstalkers" and that could sound "official"; eg. "www.mindstalkersclub.com", "Mindstalkers Forum" or "The Mindstalkers Magazine" are NOT valid choices! - "The Time Hunters - a Mindstalkers' players Forum" and "The Hampshire Mindstalkers Players Club" will be accepted.

   10. Do not use or reproduce any material already published in the official websites, excepting logos used as described above.

   11. You can put direct links to any page of our official websites, but do not mirror content from our official websites, nor put deep linking to the pictures, images, PDFs or other downloads on our website. Such activity is bandwidth theft.

   12. As previously said, if you make new material (eg. artwork, stories, missions, etc.) based upon our IP, do not put our trademarks or logos on it. If you publish - always with no commercial purposes! - a story or other material based upon a ManorHouse Miniatures, please add in the first page of the document a disclaimer like, eg., this: "'The Big Cage' is an unofficial tale by John Smith based, without permission, upon the Mindstalkers intellectual property owned by ManorHouse Miniatures".

   13. If you publish photographs of painted miniatures, it is not mandatory but we'll appreciate a disclaimer within the same page like "Miniatures ©ManorHouse Miniatures 2004. All rights reserved. Used without permission".

   14. If you want, you are free to change the Rules or invent new ones with your friends, but if you publish them in your Personal Media please clearly warn the reader that are "unofficial house rules", with no value in our official competitions.

---

Just a final word: if you call (or write) us specyfing what you want to create and/or include in your Personal Media, we can give you all the support we can to let you to be confident with the use of our IP. Let's work together, and we'll see ever better things in our wargame!